By “A Reader”
This morning I received the following link, from a friend, regarding Jon Stewart skewering CNN for fact-checking a SNL skit while not fact-checking their own guests:
‘Daily Show’ Destroys CNN For Fact-Checking ‘SNL’ Instead Of Their
Guests (VIDEO)
I could not understand why Stewart – a corporate media shill – would want to to make his audience aware that CNN is covering news stories about SNL and that CNN is taking those stories seriously enough to fact check them, for one of the primary current media strategies is to conflate entertainment with news, so that audiences cannot differentiate between them. So, why make the audience aware of this conflation, especially when Stewart is only pretending to be someone who is opposed to the system, but is actually playing a dialectical role that’s part of the greater Simulacrum?
So, I asked my friend why would Stewart point this out, especially given that Stewart is no friend of the public? And I think my much smarter friend set me on the correct path, responding with:
“His audience are smart young people who are aware of these things. I think what making fun of it does is make people not take it seriously and just think it happens from stupidity. It’s the same as the ‘Stupid Politicians’ meme that the public is supposed to believe in. It’s about the public thinking that the media is stupid, and therefore mitigating the seriousness of the issue.”
So, Stewart plays his role in the Simulacrum by making fun of, and mocking, the conflation, thereby diffusing serious investigation of this conflation. The issue becomes a joke, and is therefore discounted as an issue.
I would refer to this as “discrediting a vector” and this is one of the primary roles of a controlled vector or media leader, such as Stewart. This is why AJ, for example, is so important, and why he must be out in-front of all major “issues” …. it is so that he can control the dialog, and therefore the audience’s thinking and opinions about the “issues.” If the “issue” (or vector) becomes a problem, then AJ (or Stewart) can simply send the vector into the gutter by totally discrediting it in some way, either in the eyes of their own audiences or in the minds of other public audiences.
So, in summary, it is critical for controlled media to control all sides of every vector – this includes mocking mainstream vectors. By controlling the mocking portion of a vector, they fill a vacuum before anyone else does, and thereby maintain control of all sides. In this case, Stewart grabs the entertainment-news conflation mocking vector, and secures if before anyone else can, making sure his audience does not take the issue of news-entertainment conflation seriously, so that it can be appropriately marginalized, controlled and thereby diffused (inside the “media is stupid” vector).
